“Popcorn used to be the main thing you got. Now it’s just an appetizer,” said Ken Gillich, senior director of food and beverage for Reading Cinemas. Its venue at Cal Oaks in Murrieta is one of four in the international chain that serves the full menu created by chef Santos Loo.

Customers’ need for speed and convenience are driving the changes.

“A lot of us are time-compressed,” said Jennifer Douglass, vice president of dine-in operations for AMC Theatres, which has full-service locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. “We don’t have enough time to do all the things we want to do. So the idea of having dinner with a movie as opposed to having dinner before, you take what would otherwise be a four- or five-hour experience and combine that. That’s very appealing to our guests.”

Reading Cinemas Chef Santos Loo has redone the menu, which includes burgers, salads and all-day breakfast. at Cal Oaks in Murrieta Thursday, July 12, 2018. FRANK BELLINO, For THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE/SCNG.

Reading Cinemas Chef Santos Loo has redone the menu, which includes burgers, salads and all-day breakfast in Murrieta Thursday, July 12, 2018. FRANK BELLINO, For THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE/SCNG.

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Reading Cinemas at Cal Oaks in Murrieta has redone the menu, which includes burgers, salads and all-day breakfast in Murrieta Thursday, July 12, 2018. FRANK BELLINO, For THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE/SCNG.

Although theaters are famous for marking up the cost of popcorn and soft drinks, a spot check of casual chains such as the Yard House, B.J.’s Restaurant & Brewhouse and Red Robin shows that AMC’s and Reading Cinemas’ prices are similar for burgers, $11-$13; salads, $8-$9; and appetizers, $7-$10.

Other chains are pricier, among them:

Florida-based iPic Theaters with locations in Pasadena and Westwood, where burgers and pizzas straddle $20.

The Lot, based in La Jolla which recently opened a Newport Beach location, which serves filet mignon for $39.

Cinepolis, a Mexican chain with U.S. headquarters in Dallas and in-theater waiter service at locations in Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita and Westlake Village, where the $18-$20 admission prices are eye-catching.

Sometimes, servers accompany guests to their seats and hand them menus. In other theaters, guests summon servers with buttons at their seats.

To make sure that food service is finished before the film starts, guests are usually asked to arrive a half hour early. Servers take payment in advance, usually by credit card.

A Dallas chain called Studio Movie Grill, which acquired three Krikorian theaters in Southern California in 2017, in Redlands, Monrovia and Downey, goes the furthest with the concept. When it is done renovating the theaters, “there will be no snack bars or traditional concession stands,” according to Lynne McQuaker, senior director of public relations and outreach.

Other theaters, including Cal Oaks and some AMC Dine-in theaters, only have food service in select auditoriums. There, guests have the option of ordering food in the lobby.

It’s very satisfying, said Randall Lewis, an Upland-based shopping center developer who visited The Lot with his wife not knowing what to expect.

“We walked in at about 3:30 for a movie and there were just a few people there. When we walked out at 6 it was mobbed. It’s a restaurant that could survive on its own. It served liquor; it served candy; it served desserts. And I just thought, ‘What a great idea.’”

AMC, the world’s biggest chain with more than 8,000 screens, offers AMC Dine-In in more than 30 locations ranging from four in Southern California — Marina Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Fullerton, and Ontario — to places like Missoula, Montana, where the population is 72,364.

AMC Dine-In is only one way the chain is expanding its food options. Other concepts include The Marketplace, with snack bar space converted to something like a convenience store, and MacGuffins Bar, which serves wine, beer and sometimes cocktails.

Factors such as available space, demographics and nearby theaters determine which amenities an AMC location gets, Douglass said. Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood has a Marketplace. AMC Ontario Mills 30 has both The Marketplace and Dine-in with full service in 10 of its auditoriums.

Studio Movie Grill has walled off most of its lobby in Redlands for its kitchen, losing its main snack bar. But it usually turns an auditorium into a kitchen, said Lynne McQuaker senior director of public relations and outreach.

AMC added 50 to 60 employees when it converted its Ontario theater to a dine-in early this year, according to Douglass.

“They’re split between the kitchen, servers, runners, bussers, all that good stuff.”

Movie theater kitchens are trying to do everything that casual restaurants can do, but often with more pressure.

For one thing, restaurants have lunch and dinner rushes, while movie theaters have constant short bursts of activity during staggered intermissions.

And there’s less time to turn an order before the features start. Ticket time can be eight to 12 minutes, Douglass said.

“We try to get our tickets out within six or seven minutes,” said Gillich. “That’s hard to find in any restaurant.”

Menus are often long, including sandwiches, pizza, salads, shareable plates such as loaded fries, desserts such as sundaes, and the unexpected, such as all-day breakfast at Cal Oaks. Then there are the traditional items movie theaters have always done, such as popcorn, hot dogs and candy.

Menu planners have to remember their customers will be eating in the dark.

“There are a lot of factors,” said Loo, the chef at Reading. “Quiet foods … foods that are easy to pick up and eat. We try really hard to check those boxes. Sometimes it’s a little bit hard.”

Burgers work well and sell briskly, according to Woodland and Douglass.

“It’s pretty easy to get in the mouth without wearing a lot of it. We spend a lot of time thinking about that,” Douglass said.

Douglass does a full menu refresh two or three times a year, and Loo does it every couple of months. But most dine-ins have limited time offers.

“Pretty much every blockbuster movie we create a movie themed menu item,” said Loo.

Fielding Buck has been a business reporter since 2014 with a focus on logistics, supply chain and GIS. Prior experience includes extensive entertainment reporting. He loves photography and dogs and lives in San Bernardino County.